Did Jesus celebrate Hanukkah?
Here is an article on it that I found to be quite comprehensive on the subject:
Some of the statements I have heard expressed are these:
“Of course He celebrated Hanukkah, it’s a blessed holiday remembering a wonderful miracle in Israel’s history. Why not celebrate it? It has very positive religious overtones too. It’s among my favorite holidays”.
“I think anyone wanting to use the text of John 10 to prove He wasn’t in Jerusalem celebrating Hanukkah is really looking a little desperate theologically.”“The Feast of Hanukkah was a reality in Israel 613 years before the birth of Yahshua, but it is also a shadow picture of that which is going to take place after the Messiah confirms the Covenant that was made in his blood.”
“Hanukkah is the celebration of the destruction of the Greeks religious abominations and the purging of the Temple to prepare for the coming of the true Messiah. The worshippers of the One True God – the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – celebrate Hanukkah on the 25th day of the ninth Hebrew month – just as Yahshua did. After the defeat of the Greeks and the purging of Jerusalem of the vestiges of their abominations, we dedicated a new altar according to the precise specifications prescribed in the Torah. It takes exactly eight days to dedicate a new altar. On the ninth day, the morning and evening oblation sacrifices began anew. This is the Feast that the Messiah was commemorating and endorsing this celebration with his prophetic stamp of approval. WWJD? It is Written! DWYD! Keep the Feast (I Cor, 5:8) or Be a Feast! (Rev. 19: 17-18).
The actual Scripture used to support that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah [The Feast of Dedication] comes from John 10.
John 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.
My question is: Would Jesus be concerned about going to the temple knowing that:
King Herod was appointed by Rome, and was an Edomite brought into Judaism through a forced conversion, was not from the lineage of King David, and therefore probably not a valid King by the standard prescribed in the Torah:
Deu 17:15 You shall surely set him king over you, whom the LORD your God shall choose: one from among your brethren shall you set king over you: you may not set a stranger over you, who is not your brother.
The priesthood and the scribes/teachers were probably not valid according to Torah, or at the very least questionable due to the fact that the Maccabees had instituted their own priestly system in place. They also usurped the throne of David, which God had proclaimed at an eternal kingship by anointing themselves as king.
John the Baptist (a Levite) knew. He declined to serve in the priesthood (his father was Zacharias Luke 1:5), and instead chose to prepare the way in the wilderness, and then offered them stern correction when the pharisees and saducees appeared there where he was Baptizing people for the REMISSION OF SINS (unheard of). Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Jesus also knew:
Matthew 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not according to their works: for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5 But all their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
6 And love the uppermost places at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
8 But you be not called Rabbi: for one is your Teacher, even Christ; and all you are brothers.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you travel on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
The house of prayer had become a den of thieves.
Mat 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves. Because Jesus had come through the tribe of Judah
as prophesied, the Levitic line would now be broken, because of Him now becoming the Great High Priest. (Cohen Ha Gadol)
Heb 4:14 Then having a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.
Jesus knew that after His crucifixion, the veil would be torn by an unseen hand (God) and that the acceptance of sacrifice would now cease, even according to Jewish writings.
Mat 27:51 And, behold! The veil of the temple was torn into two from above as far as below. And the earth quaked, and the rocks were sheared!
Jesus also knew that the destruction of the temple was to be fullfilled in the near future. (70 ce)
Mat 24:2 But Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, There will not at all be left one stone on a stone which in no way will not be thrown down.
Not only the temple, but the parts of city as well:
Luk 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
Jesus made this statement:
Mat 12:6 But I say to you, One greater than the temple is here.
It should be noted that Jesus was on Solomon’s porch, a place where gentiles congregated (outer court).The Temple built by Solomon did not have a court of the Gentiles. The great court/porch referred to in 2 Chronicles was for the Israelites to worship God, and surrounded the inner court. This is not the same porch that is mentioned in John 10.
When Jesus was in Solomon’s Porch as written in John 10, He was not there to celebrate the Feast of Dedication, but was walking in the court of the Gentiles that was built by Herod. It was built so that non-Jews could access a view of the Temple without defiling the Temple
proper, which had signs warning of imminent death if the area was entered by any non-Jewish person. Solomon’s Porch was also where the money changers set up shop, as well as where they kept the animals and birds that were sold for sacrifices. This is where the tables were that Jesus overthrew when He chased the money changers from the temple.
see this article on Herodian Temple:
Would Jesus be celebrating with the same Pharisees and Sadducees and others who were plotting to kill Him when He was there as it is written?
John 10:22 And the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s Porch.
24 Then the Jews encircled Him, and said to Him, Until when do You lift up our soul? If You are the Christ, tell us publicly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you did not believe. The works which I do in the name of My Father, these bear witness about Me.
26 But you do not believe for you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give eternal life to them, and they shall not perish to the age, never! And not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck out of My Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are One!
31 Then again the Jews took up stones, that they might stone Him.
32 Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from My Father. For which work of them do you stone Me?
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, We do not stone You concerning a good work, but concerning blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.
34 Jesus answered them, Has it not been written in your Law, “I said, you are gods”?
35 If He called those gods with whom the Word of God was, and the Scripture cannot be broken,
36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said, I am Son of God?
37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.
38 But if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may perceive and may believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.
39 Then again they sought to seize Him. And He went forth from their hand.
40 And He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John was at first baptizing and remained there. According to the Scriptural account, Jesus went to the temple, possibly to teach, and then ended up schooling the Pharisees and Sadducees in front of a large crowd. He never went to where the Jews congregated, as the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Him and then circled Him at the court of the Gentiles, sought to kill him, and then again tried to seize Him. After this incident is written that He then left the temple.
And then there is this passage and the statement that Jesus made before He went to the temple:
John 4:20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.
21 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me that an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such, the ones worshiping Him.
24 God is a spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Does anyone believe that Jesus had a chanukkiah (nine branch menorah) which was devised by men, and not commanded by God as the seven branch menorah was. The miracle of the oil is merely a legend, and is not historically accurate. There is no mention of it in the apocryphal- historical writings of either Maccabees 1 or 2 (63 bce – 25ce). The legend was first introduced into Judaism in the talmud. (200-500 CE).
Solomon built the first temple, but here is what Jesus had to say in Matthew: Matthew 12:42 The queen of the south will be raised in the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, behold, a Greater-than-Solomon is here.
Chanukkah was a celebration of the Jews (Maccabees) kicking the tar out of the Greeks. Does anyone think that Jesus went to celebrate this with the gentiles who ancestors were defeated? This would be like going into the deep south and asking the people there to celebrate the defeat of their ancestors in the civil war. He probably went there to teach, and to reach the gentiles who would hear.
I like gelt as much as the next person, but does anyone think that Jesus was spinning a dreidle which has kabbalistic connotations? The Chanukiah, the legend of the oil, the dreidle, the gelt, etc are all late rabbinic additions that occured after the time of Christ, and have noting to do with first century Judaism.. To think that He celebrated Chanukkah in the modern sense as we know it can not be proven historically or Scripturally. If you remove all the modern day practices from Chanukkah that had nothing to do with the celebration at the time of Jesus, then all you have is left is to go to the temple………but that is gone too.
As a recap then, there is no Biblical proof that Jesus “celebrated” Chanukkah. He was at the temple in the court of the Gentiles for a time debating with the pharisees, and then He left.
For more info on Hanukkah:
